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"Dubai's stock market plunged on Sunday as builder Arabtec triggered another sell-off, while investors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar were disappointed by fresh quarterly earnings reports.

The slide in Dubai illustrated the extent to which the market remains dominated by a single stock, its most heavily traded counter in recent weeks, which is prey to wild swings because of frenzied trading by retail investors and short-term speculators.

Arabtec plunged its daily 10 percent limit after Aabar Investments, one of its major shareholders, did not confirm a media report which said Aabar was in talks to increase its stake. Dubai's main index closed 6.0 percent lower."

"The rise of Dubai's red-hot residential real estate market is slowing as government steps to curb speculative buying have an impact and higher prices start to affect demand, consultants JLL said in a report on Sunday.

Second-quarter trends in the market suggest the risks of the Dubai property market overheating and then crashing, as it did in 2008-2009, are easing, Craig Plumb, JLL's head of research for the Middle East and North Africa, told Reuters.

"It's good news that the market is slowing down," Plumb said, adding that when the market eventually reached the falling phase of its cycle, the pull-back was unlikely to be as violent as it was five years ago, when it triggered a corporate debt crisis in the emirate."

"Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), one of the world's largest petrochemicals groups and the Gulf's largest listed company, reported a 7 percent increase in second-quarter net income on Sunday, matching analysts' forecasts.

It earned SR6.46 billion ($1.72 billion) in the quarter, compared to SR6.04 billion in the year-earlier period, SABIC said in a bourse statement.

This was in line with the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters, who had predicted a quarterly profit of SR6.42 billion."

"Libya is a rich, large country. It is among the few countries in the Arab region and the world which are not indebted to international or regional financial funds. The most important is that its population, as compared with other oil producing and exporting countries, is considered small, not exceeding 6 million. Before the political change, Libya’s reserve amounted to $165 billion, and its annual oil returns were $60 billion.

These reserves, however, are being gradually eaten away, while the gold reserve volume was never announced. The reason behind this is the decline that revenues witnessed as production decreased from 1.6 million barrels per day in mid-2012 to less than 300,000 barrels per day due to unrest and protests that took place in the main oil facilities, leading to the shutdown of prominent oil ports despite signs of a solution looming on the horizon. Also, refinery stations were rendered dysfunctional, which led Libya to import fuel. This comes in addition to the oil smuggling operations that have been going on for three years.

Recently, the Libyan government encouraged the central bank to use money from a special reserve fund that comprises billions of dollars accumulated through previous oil sales. The aim was to help compensate for the large loss of oil revenue due to the decrease of production and subsequently exports. This has almost paralyzed the general finance of the country."

"Emerging and frontier market countries have borrowed a record amount of money in capital markets in the first half of this year, even as central bankers warn that “debt market euphoria” could be storing up trouble for the future.

International sovereign bond sales by emerging markets reached $69.47bn in the first six months of the year, a jump of 54 per cent on the same period in 2013.

The increase makes 2014 a record year for emerging market government debt issuance so far, according to data from Thomson Reuters. The figures do not include Chinese government debt, which is not issued in international markets."

"The UAE Central Bank’s initiative to provide a new lending facility to assist banks which face short-term liquidity shortfalls is the result of regular consultations between the Central Bank and the UAE Banks Federation (UBF), the bankers’ body said in a statement.

The facility, called the Interim Margin Lending Facility, will provide funding on an overnight basis for banks which are able to provide eligible securities and instruments as collateral.

The development of the facility originated from a need to introduce new ways to further strengthen and consolidate the banking sector as a whole."

"Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), the largest sharia-compliant lender in the emirate, beat analysts' estimates on Sunday as it posted a 22.6 percent jump in second-quarter net profit.

The lender, which in May got regulatory approval to purchase much of Barclays' retail operations in the United Arab Emirates, made a net profit of 454.8 million dirhams ($123.8 million) in the three months to June 30 compared to 371 million dirhams in the same period of 2013, it said in a statement.

Three analysts polled by Reuters earlier this month forecast an average net profit of 406 million dirhams."

"Stocks in Dubai fell the most in a month after a state-run investment company failed to give reassurance about increasing its support for Arabtec Holding Co. (ARTC), the United Arab Emirates’ biggest publicly traded builder. Israel’s index slid as the army expanded operations in Gaza.

The DFM General Index (DFMGI) sank 6 percent, the biggest decline since June 24, to close 4,609.67 and bringing the longest rising streak since April to an end. Arabtec tumbled the maximum allowed in a day after it resumed trading following its suspension July 17. Aabar Investments PJSC’s talks on its stake in the builder are “strictly confidential,” it said in a statement to the Dubai bourse today. Israel’s TA-25 Index headed for the biggest drop in a month at 1:43 p.m. local time.

“There is still no clarity on what is going on behind the scenes at Arabtec,” Ramez Merhi, director of asset management at Dubai-based Al Masah Capital, which manages $545 million, said by e-mail. “Investors are understandably cautious on the name today until some concrete decisions are shared with the public.”"